65 years ago: Escape at Dawn premieres

This is the first in a series of anniversary posts that I will be posting whenever an interesting date comes up. I thought that bite-sized posts like these would be an interesting way to look at some of Kurosawa’s lesser known achievements, as well as the people who worked with him over the years.

There should be a couple of these every month, with some months busier than others. Provided, of course, that I can keep up with the necessary writing and research.

What do you think?

Its a great idea Vili.

I hadn’t heard of this film, it looks very intriguing and I’d love to see more films with Yamaguchi, she seems to have been a fascinating person as well as a great actress. I’m continually surprised sometimes at how direct and unflinching some Japanese films post WWII were about the war and Japan, in contrast to later decades.

Vili, you remind me of course that Sorensens book is yet another crucial book I haven’t written yet (I see no sign yet of a paperback or kindle version).

I’ve often wondered to what extent Occupation censorship was positive or negative – i.e. did they simply cut or censor what they didn’t like, or did they actively encourage themes and story lines. It does seem to me that sometimes films made under Occupation censorship were a bit more intellectually lively than those immediately after it, when censorship became less overt, but arguably more powerful, especially in a society like Japan. My (thin) reading of Japanese post war history is that while there was something of a political and cultural flowering in the early ’50’s, this was quickly snuffed out as the economy recovered and something of a societal consensus grew up to put the war behind it. The Human Condition in this sense seems something of an outlier (albeit a huge one). There seems to me from the late 1950’s onwards a sense of disgust among many film makers with Japan as it existed, a sense perhaps of a lost opportunity. But it does certainly seems that after The Human Condition (perhaps in a sense because it was seen as something of a definitive statement), film makers, and so far as I know, other artists, seemed to lose interest in the war and what it had to say about Japan.

In a general sense, I have many times read various commentators (not least in various reviews of Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises) make the comment that ‘Japan never came to terms with its war crimes’ or similar. It seems to me that perhaps the opposite is the case – Japan addressed its actions in the war somewhat too quickly and too directly, and promptly lost interest in the whole question.

Great information there, Vili, very interesting.

Its striking how ‘liberal’ the guidelines were with regard to racial and sexual discrimination, given that the Occupation authority wasn’t exactly a shining light in those regards at the time – the Japanese should surely have realised that the US military itself was segregated up to 1948. I wonder if there was a conscious decision to aim for a very idealistic notion of what Japan could and should be by elements within the Occupation administration.

But I’m not surprised that it didn’t restrict the quality of the films coming out. I’m a great believer in the notion that many artists thrive best when working under overt constraints, whether external or internal to the artist.

I do wonder sometimes if the little signs of rebellion showed by film makers like Ozu were as much based on a sense of mischief as any real disapproval of the Occupation. Ozu’s films in particular are littered with seemingly random American symbols (Late Spring in particular), and I don’t necessarily think they add up to a political ‘message’. I suspect many of them were ‘winks’ to the audience, a sort of mutual acknowledgement of who was really in charge, a little like Ai Weiwei’s sculptural security cameras.

Very interesting information and discussion , thanks.
I also find the films made during the war under Japanese censorship rules fascinating ( although there are not that many to see easily )
I would recommend this recent set released by Criterion in their Eclipse series ( one film of which falls after the war and fits the above topic nicely )
http://www.criterion.com/boxsets/1083-eclipse-series-41-kinoshita-and-world-war-ii
I managed to watch them all over Christmas and it was interesting to think of them in context with Kurosawa’s films made in the same period.
Now I need to find time to re-watch those early films again, if I remember correctly a couple of Ozu films also date from this period
And there is also this film available
http://www.criterion.com/films/1089-ornamental-hairpin

Thanks for those links, Longstone, I hadn’t realised so many Kinoshita films were now available. I’ve only seen two of his films – The Ballad of Narayama, which I didn’t like so much, and 24 Eyes, which I thought was half a great film (the first half), and half a dishonest sentimental mess (the second half). I’d always wondered why he had such an exalted reputation with his contemporaries, perhaps I should have a look at those new releases.

I hadn’t seen many Kinoshita films prior to this set other than the two you mention Ugetsu and a suspect quality Chinese DVD of Carmen Comes Home ( Japan’s fist colour film apparently ). Personally I enjoyed 24 eyes a lot but agree that it’s over sentimental in the second half.
I really need to see the films in this WW 2 set a second time to be more critical, first time through I loved them all simply because I’d never had the chance to see them before. It was fascinating to see how the censorship or rather propaganda seemed to get stronger as time went on then obviously takes a totally different turn with the fifth film during the occupation.
These as far as I can tell are Kinoshita’s first films and I wondered how that must have been making your first five features under those conditions.
The films are flawed and may suffer from some over sentimentality too but I think they are well worth watching.

Thanks for the link, Longstone! I really liked Kinoshita’s Ballad of Narayama, so maybe I should get the set. The wartime censorship is fascinating, and another instance of nation building, just with fairly different goals than what the occupation censors were doing some years later.

Shimizu’s Ornamental Hairpin is also lovely. I think we actually had it as a film club title some years ago.

If you are interested in exploring the topic further, there is also a fairly good book on Japanese wartime film, titled The Imperial Screen.